Xplor
An Atlanta-based roll-up of gym, golf, childcare and trades software with $47B of payments running through it. Private equity owned, about $900M in revenue, and carrying a lot of debt.
Xplor release, Mar 30, 2026- Valuation
- Not disclosed Owned by private equity, not venture rounds. No price was published for the 2025 Clubessential merger.
- Revenue
- About $900M Annual revenue of the combined company, per Xplor at the merger close. No growth rate or profit given.
- Owners
- Advent majority Advent International controls it; Battery Ventures, Silver Lake and Osprey Investors also back it.
- Watch
- Rated B3 Moody's cites high leverage after the Clubessential and Ezypay deals and expects it to fall to about 7.5x.
- AI
- Chief AI Officer Hired Oct 2026 to spend an eight-figure AI budget across the brands. One agent is live, in Momence.
- Liquidity
- None found No staff tender offer or secondary sale reported. An IPO was filed confidentially in 2021 but never happened.
- Hiring
- 236 → 74 remote listings since Oct 10.
Software subscriptions for small businesses, plus a cut of the card payments that run through them.
Xplor sells booking, membership and job software to gyms, golf clubs, parks departments, childcare centers, dry cleaners and trades businesses, and processes their payments through Xplor Pay. It serves more than 130,000 businesses in 72 countries and processes over $47B a year. It does not publish a split between software and payments revenue. Headquarters is Atlanta, not Sydney.
Xplor release, Mar 30, 2026- 1Payments are built into the software customers already run onOver $47B in annual payments volume, up from more than $37B in 2024 before the merger. Xplor Pay also sells embedded payments to outside software firms.Xplor Ezypay release, Sep 2025; merger release, Mar 2026
- 2Hard-to-replace systems of record in niche industriesGolf & Club alone supports more than 3,500 customers in nine countries and over 23.5 million members and patrons.Xplor release, Sep 15, 2026
- 3A buy-and-build machineIts own timeline lists 29 acquisitions from 2006 to 2025 (FieldEdge, Mariana Tek, Exerp, RecDesk, Momence and more), then Ezypay and Bitlancer.Xplor, Our Journey page
Every round, and what its terms give away.
Xplor is private, so there is no share price. What its investors paid, and on what terms, is the closest thing to one.
- $900M
- annual revenue, as of Mar 30
- 3,000
- employees, as reported
Not disclosed. Moody's expects solid growth and margin expansion to bring leverage down.
Xplor release, Mar 30, 2026; employees from xplor.com/about-us- Sep 23Incremental term loan (reported)$1.35BLed by JPMorgan-led bank groupReported, from unnamed sources, to refinance Clubessential's debt. Final size and terms not found.Bloomberg Law, Sep 23, 2025
- Sep 16Merger with Clubessential HoldingsLed by Advent International (stays majority owner)Terms not disclosed. Battery Ventures and Silver Lake became minority owners with board seats. Closed Dec 2025 per Moody's; launched Mar 30, 2026.Advent International, Sep 16, 2025
- Feb 1Merger forming Xplor (Clearent + TSG)Led by Advent InternationalTwo Advent companies combined. Month only (Feb 2021) on the company timeline; day is a placeholder.Xplor, Our Journey page
- Jun 1Buyout (majority stake in TSG)Led by Advent InternationalTransaction Services Group, founded in New Zealand in 1994. Price not disclosed; month only.Xplor, Our Journey page
- Apr 1Buyout (majority stake in Clearent)Led by Advent InternationalUS payments processor founded in 2005. Price not disclosed; month only.Xplor, Our Journey page
- Down round or flat round?No priced equity round exists to compare. Xplor is private equity owned and no valuation for the 2025 merger was published.Advent International, Sep 16, 2025Open
- Time since the last capital eventRecent. The merger and Ezypay deal closed in Dec 2025, about 11 months ago, and Bitlancer followed in Jun 2026.Octus summary of Moody's, Oct 2, 2026Clear
- Debt-heavy or unusual termsYes. Moody's B3 rating (stable) cites high pro forma leverage; it expects about 7.5x over 12 to 18 months. A $1.35B add-on term loan was reported in Sep 2025.Octus summary of Moody's, Oct 2, 2026; Bloomberg LawFlag
- New outside money or insiders only?Insiders only. The merger combined two sets of existing owners; no new outside equity investor was announced. Osprey Investors appears in releases, but its stake is not described.Xplor releases, 2025 to 2026Open
- Employee liquidityNo tender offer or staff secondary found. The 2021 confidential IPO filing never led to a listing, so there has been no public market for shares.Xplor release via AmCham NZ, Sep 20, 2021; search Nov 3, 2026Open
- Layoffs in the last 12 monthsSearched news on the merger, integration and WARN-style reports: no Xplor layoffs reported. Worth watching as two companies with overlapping fitness brands combine.Athletech News, Mar 30, 2026; news search Nov 3, 2026Clear
Clear: checked, nothing found. Flag: found, with the source. Open: could not be checked.
Xplor's revenue, year by year.
Typical of a private equity roll-up: growth is bought with borrowed money. Moody's sees leverage near 7.5x even after it improves. Total debt was not found in public sources.
What the record says, and what we think it means.
The fact is the source's. The read, in italics, is ours.
- 01Neutral
The smaller partner's CEO now runs the company.
Advent International, Sep 16, 2025Randy Eckels, who led Clubessential, became Xplor CEO when the merger closed. Former Xplor CEO Pamela Joseph moved to a non-executive board seat. CFO Justin LaChance stayed.
Expect Clubessential's playbook and people in senior roles. Leadership changes after a merger often reshuffle teams below them too.
- 02Watch
Deep in junk-rated debt.
Octus summary of Moody's, Oct 2, 2026Moody's affirmed a B3 corporate family rating with a stable outlook after a Sep 24, 2026 review, citing high leverage, cyclical end markets and private equity ownership.
B3 is near the bottom of the single-B range. Interest costs can squeeze hiring and raises if growth slows.
- 03Watch
It filed for an IPO in 2021 and never listed.
Xplor release via AmCham NZ, Sep 20, 2021Xplor confidentially submitted a draft registration statement to the SEC on Sep 20, 2021. No IPO followed, and no new filing has been reported.
No reason for dropping it was published. Advent has owned the core businesses since 2018 and 2019, so an exit is overdue by usual buyout timelines.
- 04Neutral
A Chief AI Officer and a new payments organization.
Xplor release, Oct 13, 2026On Oct 13, 2026 Xplor hired Shivani Stumpf (ex PowerSchool) as Chief AI Officer and moved CTO James Black to run a new Global Payments & Infrastructure group.
Folding infrastructure, security and payments under one leader points to a push to standardize systems across dozens of acquired products.
- 05Good
Bought an AI payroll tools team.
Xplor release, Jun 10, 2026Xplor acquired Bitlancer, maker of the TribeEngine.Fit payroll and staffing tool for boutique studios, on Jun 10, 2026. Price not disclosed; its team leads embedded payroll and AI work.
Payroll is a new product line to sell into existing customers. The planned features are announced, not shipped.
- 06Good
Expanded payments into Asia-Pacific with Ezypay.
Xplor release, Sep 2025; close date via Moody'sXplor agreed to buy Ezypay, which processes payments in 10 Asia-Pacific countries, in Sep 2025. Price not disclosed; closed Dec 2025.
Adds recurring billing reach in Australia and the region, where Xplor's childcare and fitness software already sells.
- 07Watch
Its biggest fitness rival just got bigger.
Kirkland & Ellis, Jan 16, 2026Playlist (Mindbody, ClassPass) agreed in Jan 2026 to merge with EGYM at a $7.5B combined value, with $785M of new equity.
Both companies are consolidating gym and studio software at the same time. Expect sharper price and feature competition for fitness customers.
What the hiring data says.
We save every company's roles, pay by team and level, AI share and churn every day, so each month this page can say more. Sparklines use their own scale.
Can AI agents do business with Xplor?
We checked the agent payment programs, developer docs and site rules an AI assistant would meet.
Readable, not yet agent-ready. Payment docs are open to AI and one product has its own agent, but there is no MCP server or agent payment program.
Still Remote read- Not foundAn MCP server for AI agentsNo MCP server found for Xplor, Xplor Pay, Momence, Mariana Tek, FieldEdge or Clubessential.Searched Nov 3, 2026
- YesIts own AI agent in a productMomence's AI Inbox Agent answers clients across SMS, email and social DMs, books and reschedules classes and, if enabled, updates payment methods or issues eligible refunds. It hands off to staff for judgment calls.Momence, checked Nov 3, 2026
- MixedDocs that AI tools can readdocs.xplorpay.com publishes an llms.txt index of its payment and onboarding guides. xplor.com/llms.txt, xplorpay.com/llms.txt and momence.com/llms.txt return 404.checked Nov 3, 2026
- YesLets AI crawlers read its sitesxplor.com allows all bots; it only blocks Baidu from one page and blocks admin paths for everyone. docs.xplorpay.com sets ai-train=yes, search=yes, ai-input=yes.checked Nov 3, 2026
- Not foundAgent payment protocols (Google AP2, OpenAI/Stripe ACP, Visa or Mastercard agent programs)No announcement found tying Xplor Pay to any of them, despite $47B of yearly volume.Xplor press room, searched Nov 3, 2026
Where Xplor puts AI to work.
- 1AI now has a C-suite ownerThe Chief AI Officer leads enterprise AI strategy and adds AI features to the vertical software, aiming to automate admin work and suggest next steps to customers.Xplor release, Oct 13, 2026
- 2An eight-figure AI budget, starting with fitnessXplor committed a material, eight-figure sum to native AI at the merger launch. The first example was an agent for Momence that handles back-office work for studios.Athletech News, Mar 30, 2026
Fewer listings than on Sep 7, led by sales.
The signals, and which way they push.
- TailwindPayments volume keeps climbing.
Over $47B a year after the merger, against more than $37B for Xplor alone in 2024, with new outside platforms like Improvifi and Haulvana signing to Xplor Pay.
- TailwindReal money behind AI.
An eight-figure AI budget, a Chief AI Officer, an acquired AI payroll team and a live studio agent, all in 2026.
- HeadwindLeverage limits room to maneuver.
B3 rating, high pro forma leverage, and a Moody's path that still leaves it near 7.5x in 12 to 18 months.
- HeadwindScaled rivals in its biggest verticals.
Playlist and EGYM combined at $7.5B in fitness; ServiceTitan is public in field services.
Where Xplor ends up, if we had to bet.
Our calls, not facts. Each one is tied to something that already happened, so you can judge the reasoning.
- 1
Xplor lists on a US exchange by 2031.
Coin flip 50%IPOIt filed confidentially once, in 2021, and is now near $900M of revenue. But high leverage and a fresh merger to digest argue for paying down debt first.
Xplor release via AmCham NZ; Moody's via Octus - 2
Advent sells Xplor, whole or in parts, to another buyout firm or a payments company instead of an IPO.
Coin flip 50%M&AAdvent bought into Clearent in 2018 and TSG in 2019, long by buyout standards. A sale is the usual alternative when a listing stalls.
Xplor, Our Journey page - 3
Payroll and financing become standard add-ons across Xplor's brands.
Likely 72%ProductsIt bought Bitlancer for payroll in 2026 and launched Xplor Capital for embedded business financing in 2025. Both sell into customers it already has.
Xplor releases, 2025 to 2026 - 4
Agents like Momence's inbox run front-desk work in most Xplor products.
Likely 72%AIThe Momence agent already books classes and handles refunds. A Chief AI Officer now has a mandate to spread such features across all verticals.
Momence; Xplor release, Oct 2026 - 5
Fitness software ends up dominated by two or three groups, with Xplor one of them.
Likely 72%CompetitionXplor absorbed Clubessential while Playlist merged with EGYM, both in the past year. Smaller studio and gym software vendors are the obvious next targets.
Kirkland & Ellis; Advent International
Read by the Still Remote research agent on November 3, 2026 from the sources linked on this page. Facts and scenarios only, not investment advice.